3:1 And now it came to pass that in the sixteenth
year from the coming of Christ, Lachoneus, the
governor of the land, received an epistle from the leader
and the governor of this band of robbers; and these were
the words which were written, saying: |
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3:2 Lachoneus, most noble and chief governor of the
land, behold, I write this epistle unto you, and do give
unto you exceedingly great praise because of your
firmness, and also the firmness of your people, in
maintaining that which ye suppose to be your right and
liberty; yea, ye do stand well, as if ye were supported
by the hand of a god, in the defence of your liberty, and
your property, and your country, or that which ye do call
so. |
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3:3 And it seemeth a pity unto me, most noble
Lachoneus, that ye should be so foolish and vain as to
suppose that ye can stand against so many brave men who
are at my command, who do now at this time stand in their
arms, and do await with great anxiety for the word--Go
down upon the Nephites and destroy them. |
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3:4 And I, knowing of their unconquerable spirit,
having proved them in the field of battle, and knowing of
their everlasting hatred towards you because of the many
wrongs which ye have done unto them, therefore if they
should come down against you they would visit you with
utter destruction. |
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3:5 Therefore I have written this epistle, sealing
it with mine own hand, feeling for your welfare, because
of your firmness in that which ye believe to be right,
and your noble spirit in the field of battle. |
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3:6 Therefore I write unto you, desiring that ye
would yield up unto this my people, your cities, your
lands, and your possessions, rather than that they should
visit you with the sword and that
destruction should come upon you. |
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3:7 Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us,
and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret
works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto
us--not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all
our substance. |
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3:8 And behold, I swear unto you, if ye will do
this, with an oath, ye shall not be destroyed; but if ye
will not do this, I swear unto you with an oath, that on
the morrow month I will command that my armies shall come
down against you, and they shall not stay their hand and
shall spare not, but shall slay you, and shall let fall
the sword upon you even until ye shall become extinct. |
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3:9 And behold, I am Giddianhi; and I am the
governor of this the secret society of Gadianton; which
society and the works thereof I know to be good; and they
are of ancient date and they have been handed down unto
us. |
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3:10 And I write this epistle unto you, Lachoneus,
and I hope that ye will deliver up your lands and your
possessions, without the shedding of blood, that this my
people may recover their rights and government, who have
dissented away from you because of your wickedness in
retaining from them their rights of government, and
except ye do this, I will avenge their wrongs. I am
Giddianhi. |
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3:11 And now it came to pass when Lachoneus received
this epistle he was exceedingly astonished, because of
the boldness of Giddianhi demanding the possession of the
land of the Nephites, and also of threatening the people
and avenging the wrongs of those that had received no
wrong, save it were they had wronged themselves by
dissenting away unto those wicked and abominable robbers.
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3:12 Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a
just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and
the threatenings of a robber; therefore he did not
hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the
robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto
the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers
should come down against them. |
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3:13 Yea, he sent a proclamation among all the
people, that they should gather together their women, and
their children, their flocks and their herds, and all
their substance, save it were their land, unto one place.
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3:14 And he caused that fortifications should be
built round about them, and the strength thereof should
be exceedingly great. And he caused that armies, both of
the Nephites and of the Lamanites, or of all them who
were numbered among the Nephites, should be placed as
guards round about to watch them, and to guard them from
the robbers day and night. |
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3:15 Yea, he said unto them: As the Lord liveth,
except ye repent of all your iniquities, and cry unto the
Lord, ye will in nowise be delivered out of the hands of
those Gadianton robbers. |
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3:16 And so great and marvelous were the words and
prophecies of Lachoneus that they did cause fear to come
upon all the people; and they did exert themselves in
their might to do according to the words of Lachoneus. |
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3:17 And it came to pass that Lachoneus did appoint
chief captains over all the armies of the Nephites, to
command them at the time that the robbers should come
down out of the wilderness against them. |
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3:18 Now the chiefest among all the chief captains
and the great commander of all the armies of the Nephites
was appointed, and his name was Gidgiddoni. |
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3:19 Now it was the custom among all the Nephites to
appoint for their chief captains, (save it were in their
times of wickedness) some one that had the spirit of
revelation and also prophecy; therefore, this Gidgiddoni
was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief
judge. |
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3:20 Now the people said unto Gidgiddoni: Pray unto
the Lord, and let us go up upon the mountains and into
the wilderness, that we may fall upon the robbers and
destroy them in their own lands. |
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3:21 But Gidgiddoni saith unto them: The Lord
forbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord
would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will
prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will
gather all our armies together, and we will not go
against them, but we will wait till they shall come
against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this
he will deliver them into our hands. |
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3:22 And it came to pass in the seventeenth year, in
the latter end of the year, the proclamation of Lachoneus
had gone forth throughout all the face of the land, and
they had taken their horses, and their chariots, and their cattle, and all their
flocks, and their herds, and their grain, and all their
substance, and did march forth by thousands and by tens
of thousands, until they had all gone forth to the place
which had been appointed that they should gather
themselves together, to defend themselves against their
enemies. |
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3:23 And the land which was appointed was the land
of Zarahemla, and the land which was between the land
Zarahemla and the land Bountiful, yea, to the line which
was between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation. |
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3:24 And there were a great many thousand people who
were called Nephites, who did gather themselves together
in this land. Now Lachoneus did cause that they should
gather themselves together in the land southward, because
of the great curse which was upon the land northward. |
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3:25 And they did fortify themselves against their
enemies; and they did dwell in one land, and in one body,
and they did fear the words which had been spoken by
Lachoneus, insomuch that they did repent of all their
sins; and they did put up their prayers unto the Lord
their God, that he would deliver them in the time that
their enemies should come down against them to battle. |
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3:26 And they were exceedingly sorrowful because of
their enemies. And Gidgiddoni did cause that they should
make weapons of war of every kind, and they should be
strong with armor, and with shields, and with bucklers,
after the manner of his instruction. |
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